Samuel a



ITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

SAMUEL A. GOULD, OF SENECA FALLS, NEIV YORK.

CORN-:instruit Specification of Letters Patent No.

To all 'whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, SAMUEL A. GoULD, of the town of Seneca Falls, in the county of Seneca and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Machines for Husking Corn; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the construction and operation of the same, reference being had to the annexed drawings, making a part of this specification, in which Figure l is a perspective view and Fig. 2 a horizontal section.

I construct my improved corn husker as follows:

A frame of wood or other suitable material (A Fig. l) constructed in the usual manner two feet and a half in length and of the same height, eight inches wide and having a part (L Fig. 2) projecting from the back side of the frame one foot; supported by the three legs N, N, N, would be suitable for the support of the working parts of the machine. I fix near one end of the frame as shown in the drawing the standard H, which is siX inches in height and has a slot or mortise open at the top a half of an inch wide and deep enough to receive the `width of the lever B and allow it to play therein. A bolt or pin P passes through the standard and through a, hole drilled through the lever B forming its ful- Crum. The spiral spring F of sufficient power to raise the opposite end of the lever a footabove its horizontal position, rapidly, is attached to the end of the lever B about two inches from its fulcrum and also to the frame A as shown in Fig. l. The treadle I is constructed in the ordinary manner and designed to furnish the means of operating the machine by the foot. The lever B is of wrought or cast iron about two inches wide and half an inch thick, diminishing in width toward the end to which the spring F is attached and considerably enlarged in thickness at the opposite end where it has a slot through it about three inches long and half an inch wide. lThe end of the lever B each side of the slot is half an inch thick and hollowed on its under surface as shown in Fig. l. This slot receives the guide C and allows the knife D to penetrate between the divided end of the lever B. The guide C is secured to the frame A between the 18,584, dated November 10, 1857.

block G and the knife D in a substantial manner. It is made of three eighths inch square iron or steel, rises perpendicularly to the frame A along the edge of the knife D to near the top of the knife, from which point it takes the curve of which the lever B on its fulc-rum P forms the radius. I sometimes set the guide a little from the knife at the bottom inclining it toward the knife near the top and then back to the curve above mentioned as shown in the drawing Fig. l. The block G is fastened to the frame A about three inches from the knife D and rises vertically four inches; a plate or ear on each side of the block an inch and a half high above the top of the block, receives through holes drilled therein the pin It which forms the fulcrum of the trip lever E. This pin R passes through two ears on the under side o-f the arm K (Fig. of the trip lever E and the fulcrum is about one third of the length of the arm K distant from the end which the lever B strikes. The other arm of the lever E rests on the block G. The fulcrum R is one inch above the top of the block G.

The trip lever E I make of iron five inches long. Each arm is one inch wide and a half an inch thick. Its form is a right angle.

T he steel knife D is about one and three quarters of an inch wide. At its lower end it is bent to a right angle and firmly secured by screws to the frame A and rises vertically five inches in height. Its upper end is lancet shaped, forming an acute angle sharp on both edges and designed to cut the butt or stock close to the ear without detaching the husk from the stock.

The mode of operation is as follows: An car of unhusked corn attached to the stalk or otherwise is held against the guide C and the butt brought on to the point of the knife D while the ear toward the small end rests on the arm K of the trip lever E. A stroke of the lever B performed by the hand (or by the foot by means of the treadle) brings the slotted portion of the lever B down upon the butt, driving the knife through it which partly separates the ear from the butt while at the same time the lever B striking the end of the arm K of the trip lever E elevates its other arm and breaks the ear loose from its husk, leaving the husk att-ached to the stalk. The spiral slotted lever B, the Whole being constructed spring raises the lever B for a newv bloT and operating substantially as described.

and the trip lever returns to its horizontal position by its own Weifrht. What I claim as niy inbVent-ion and desire SAMUEL A' GOULD 5 to secure by Letters Patent is- Witnesses: v

The trip lever E in combination Wit-h the BENSON OWEN,

lancet shaped knife D, the guide C and the J. H. UNDERHILL. 

